Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/646

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614 MASSACHUSETTS for 1880 says : "The thirteen States having the largest capital [in national hanks] are Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, &c. ... in the order named." In 1879 the capital of national banks in Massachusetts was $94,748,172, that of New York being $85,706,942. In 1881 there were 242 such banks, with $95,605,000 capital, and $525,827 dividends, and in 1880 they issued $3,693,885 in circulating bills, Pennsylvania with $2,036,890 coming next. A report to the commissioner of internal revemie, for the six months ending May 31, 1880, shows Massachusetts to have 218 hanking and trust companies, private bankers, and savings hanks (not organized under the national law), with an aggregate capital of $5,638,099 ; average deposits to the amount of $208,822,039. These banks also held investments in United States bonds, amounting to $22,909,377. Public Debt, Ac. The public debt of the State, January 1, 1881, was $32,799,464; the sinking funds, $13,050,192-20; the trust funds $2,890,650 -92. The total taxable value was$l,927,855,430 09. The taxes produced $4,950,000. The rate of State taxation is much smaller than that of any other State. The State receipts were on account of revenue $7,881,198; on account of funds, $5,616,418, or $13,497,616 in all. The Boston stock exchange stands next to New York in the extent of the securities in which it deals. Citizens of Massachusetts (16,855 in number) hold 45,138,750 of the United States bonds, and the proportion of holders (23 04 per cent. ) to the population of the State is in excess of that of all other States ; New York, which is next, shows 20 24 per cent. In 1881 the State contributed $2,699,681 as internal revenue to the Federal treasury, being a twelfth rank among the States and Territories. Social Statistics. Intellectual Life. No statement of the influ ence which Massachusetts has exerted upon the American people, through intellectual activity and even through vagary, is complete without an enumeration of the names which, to Americans at least, are the signs of this influence and activity. In science, John Winthrop, the most eminent of colonial scientists ; Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford) ; Nathaniel Bowditch, the translator of Laplace ; Benjamin Peirce ; and Morse the electrician ; not to include an adopted citizen in Louis Agassiz. In history, Winthrop and Bradford laid the foundations of her story in the very begin ning ; but the best example of the colonial period is Thomas Hutchinson, and in our day, Bancroft, Sparks, Palfrey, Prescott, Motley, and Parkman. In poetry, the pioneer of the modern spirit in American verse was Richard Henry Dana ; and later came Bryant, Longfellow, "VVhittier, Lowell, and Holmes. In philosophy, and the science of living, Jonathan Edwards, Franklin, Channing, Emerson, and Theodore Parker. In oratory, James Otis, Fisher Ames, Josiah Quincy, jun., Webster, Choate, Everett, Sumner, Winthrop, and Wendell Phillips. In fiction, Hawthorne and Mrs Stowe, not to embrace the living and younger names of Howells and Aldrich. In law, Story, Parsons, and Shaw In polite scholarship, Ticknor and Hillard. In art, Copley, Gilbert Stuart, Washington Allston, William M. Hunt, Horatio Greenough, W. W. Story, and Thomas Ball. What in America was called the " transcendental movement " which sprang out of German affilia tions, and swept in its train many scholarly persons, and resulted in the well-known community of Brook Farm, under the leadership of the late Dr George Ripley was a growth of Massachusetts, and in passing away it left, instead of traces of an organization, a sentiment and an aspiration for what was called a higher thinking, which gave Emerson his friendly sympathizers. It might go without saying that a community which fostered such persons and feelings was not at all times free from riotous^ind unbalanced ideas, which could inaugurate too many departures from the common course of wisdom. Education. Of the 307,321 children between five and fifteen in Massachusetts, 281,757 attend the public schools, in addition to 25,020 over fifteen, and 1833 under five ; while 27,370 of all ages attend charitable, reformatory, and private schools. The public schools are 5570 in number ; the academies and private schools, The cost of maintaining the public schools is $5,156,731 per annum. This expenditure is exceeded only in the States of New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. It is a little more in Iowa. A board of education (the governor, lieutenant-governor, and eight others) have the general charge, and their secretary acts as superintendent of the State system in conjunction with local superintendents and committees. Women are eligible to these positions, and among the teachers of the public schools they are largely in excess, 7462 women and 1133 men; and of the com bined number (8595) 2228 had attended normal schools. The male teachers on an average receive $67 54 per month; the women, $30 59. The system includes common, high, and normal schools, with one normal art school, and various evening, industrial, and truant schools. No discrimination is made as to race, colour, or religious views. The average attendance is 89 per cent, of the membership. Two-fifths of one per cent, of the native population are illiterate. The State normal schools, where the teachers are trained, are five in number, besides the art school. The attendance upon them was 841 in 1880. Some of the cities and towns maintain their own training schools. Meetings of teachers are held once a month or oftencr in various parts of the State, for comparison of views and experience. The high schools are 215 in number, with 18,758 pupils and 494 teachers ; and other secondary instruction is given in the business colleges, private academic schools, and the more distinctive prepara tory schools, which send their graduates to the colleges. Of these last the most important is Harvard College, the chief department of what is known as Harvard University, which includes in addition various professional schools, and other colleges of special studies. This university in 1882 had 1382 students, with a stalf of 200 officers and instructors ; and of these students 823 belong to the academic department (Harvard College), where they are allowed wide latitude in the choice of the studies pursued. The classes of undergraduates are recruited largely from the State ; but the estab lishment of examinations for admission in distant cities, like Phila delphia, Cincinnati, St Louis, and San Francisco, is increasing the proportion who come from other parts of the country. Harvard University is mainly at Cambridge, 3 miles from Boston, but some of the departments are in the latter city. In the extreme west of the State is Williams College, which in 1880 had 227 students ; and in the Connecticut valley is Amherst College, with 339 students. Boston University, in its several departments, had 510 students in 1880 ; and Tufts College, a few miles from Boston, an institution supported by the Universalist sect, had 63 students. Two Roman Catholic colleges are main tained, Boston College with 80 students, and College of the Holy Cross, at Worcester, of about the same size. Of the various insti tutions for the instruction of women, two rank with the colleges for men, -Smith College at Northampton, and Wellesley College, not far from Boston. The income of college funds (425,958) is only exceeded in New York ($710,164). For agricultural students there are two schools, one supported by the State at Amherst, and the Bussey Institution, a department of Harvard University. In technological science there is special instruction given in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston), the Lawrence Scientific School (of Harvard University), the Free Institute of Industrial Science (Worcester), and the School of all Sciences (Boston University). In theology, nearly three hundred students in 1880 were divided among the schools at Andover (Congregational), at Boston (in connexion with the uni versity, Methodist), at Cambridge (Harvard University, non-sec tarian, and an independent Episcopal school), at Somerville (Tufts College, Uuiversalist), at Newton (Baptist), and at Waltham(New Church). ] n law there are schools in connexion with both Boston and Harvard universities ; and the same is true of medicine, that of the former being of homoeopathic tendency. The State is also sup plied with special schools of various other sorts, particularly those for deaf mutes, the blind, and the feeble-minded, in which note worthy methods have been employed with success. In 1880 the United States patent office issued letters to an average of one inhabitant of the State in every 1333, a degree of inventive energy only exceeded in Connecticut, where the proportion is one in 1020. The total receipts of the post-office in 1880 were $2,484,692, an amount only exceeded by New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, while the State stands seventh in population. The Press. The earliest printing in the British colonies was- done at Cambridge in this State, where, in 1640, the first book was printed, which is known as the " Bay Psalm-Book, " being a version of the Psalms, for singing, made in the colony. Cambridge still re tains its pre-eminence in the University and Riverside presses. A printing-house was not set up in Boston till 1674. In the early part of this century book printing was done at various country presses ; but at present it is all done in Boston, which, with New York and Philadelphia, is now a principal centre of the American book trade, A single number of two separate ventures to scatter public intelli gence had appeared in Boston in 1689 and 1690 ; but the first regular newspaper was not established till 1704, when the Boston Newsletter became the pioneer of the American newspaper press. There is at present no newspaper of much influence printed outside of Boston, except the Springfield Republican ; and even the Boston newspapers are generally held to be behind those of New York and Chicago in enterprise and power In 1880" there were 35 daily newspapers, with 33 others (having .n annual circulation for dailies of 86,304,851 ; for weeklies.^ &c. , of 10,204,537), and 392 periodicals of all kinds issued. Libraries. The State is the most richly provided with public collections of books (apart from school libraries) of any in the Union. In the number of volumes the public library of Boston (404,201 in 1FS2) probably stands at the head of all in the country, though the library of Congress closely follows. Each of these libraries fills its enumeration, however, with large numbers of duplicates, that at

Washington from those received under the Copyright Act, and that